The State of Louisiana ( or , , pronounced ) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge. The largest city and metropolitan area is New Orleans. The largest parish by population is Jefferson Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties.

Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, so strongly influenced by an admixture of 18th century French, Spanish and African cultures that they have been considered somewhat exceptional in the U.S. Before the American influx and statehood at the beginning of the 19th century, the territory of current Louisiana State had been a Spanish and French colony. In addition, the pattern of development included importing numerous African Americans in the 18th century, with many from the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture.

Namesake

An alternative explanation of the name is that Louisiana is a combination of Louis XIV and his wife Anna of Austria. This, however, is false. While his mother was Anne of Austria, Louis XIV was married to Marie-Thérèse.

Geography

Topography

Louisiana is bordered to the west by the state of Texas; to the north by Arkansas; to the east by the state of Mississippi; and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico.

The surface of the state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands and the alluvial, including coast and swamp regions. The alluvial regions, including the low swamps and coast lands, cover an area of about 20,000 square miles (52,000 km²). They lie principally along the Mississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about 600 miles (1,000 km) and empties into the Gulf of Mexico; the Red River; the Ouachita River and its branches; and other minor streams (some of which are called bayous). The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is from 10 to 60 miles (15 to 100 km), and along the other rivers the alluvial region averages about 10 miles (15 km) across. The Mississippi River flows along a ridge formed by its own deposits (known as a levee), from which the lands decline toward the low swamps beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile (3 m/km). The alluvial lands along other streams present similar features.

The higher lands and contiguous hill lands of the north and northwestern part of the state have an area of more than 25,000 square miles (65,000 km²). They consist of prairie and woodlands. The elevations above sea level range from 10 feet (3 m) at the coast and swamp lands to 50 and 60 feet (15–18 m) at the prairie and alluvial lands. In the uplands and hills, the elevations rise to Driskill Mountain, the highest point in the state at only 535 feet (163 m) above sea level. Only two other states, Florida and Delaware, are geographically lower than Louisiana. Several other states, such as Kansas and Nebraska, are geographically flatter.